A Sneak Peek at Where They Make the World’s Coolest Yachts

Photographer Benedict Redgrove got to take a peek inside the workshop of Wally Yachts, makers of some of the world's most luxurious boats. Photo: Benedict Redgrove

It's a different type of yacht photo than we're used to. It's what they look like before they've ever touched water. Photo: Benedict Redgrove

It doesn't hurt that the workshop is nearly as immaculate as the boats themselves. Redgrove brings out all the sci-fi-like details. Photo: Benedict Redgrove

Wally has won the Compasso d’Oros, the prestigious industrial design award, twice in recent years. Photo: Benedict Redgrove

Here, the hull of a motor yacht, the Wally Ace, dwarfs one of the workers. Photo: Benedict Redgrove

A straight-on shot of the Wally Ace. Photo: Benedict Redgrove

Here, we're nose to nose with the Wally's biggest sloop to date, a 165 foot sailboat called the Better Place. When Redgrove visited, it was in the process of being painted the same color as the owner's Bugatti. Photo: Benedict Redgrove

Sadly, the rebranding effort part of the shoot never materialized, and Redgrove wasn't asked back to see the final vessels. Photo: Benedict Redgrove

“I’m just sad we never got to see them being launched and shoot them in the water,” he says. Photo: Benedict Redgrove

They say the two best days of owning a boat are the day you buy it and the day you sell it. From a photographic perspective, though, that might not necessarily hold true. As we see in these shots by Benedict Redgrove, there’s something uniquely striking about a yacht that’s in the process of being built, still weeks or months away from touching the water. What we see here is arguably the peak of their pristine beauty–before the sea salt and the barnacles do their work. It certainly doesn’t hurt when the place they’re being built is nearly as immaculate as the boats themselves.

Wally makes some of the most sophisticated yachts money can buy.

The workshop is that of Wally Yachts, a Monaco-based company (naturally) responsible some of the most sophisticated yachts money can buy. A quick scroll through the company’s website will find something for everyone, from the lowly multimillion dollar recording artist up through your standard captain of industry. For the most lucrative Bond villain types there’s the Wally Why, a concept designed in collaboration with Hermes that is half-boat, half-private island (and still purportedly highly friendly to the environment!)

These shots show three different vessels: a motorized yacht called the Wally Ace; the single-deck, 630 horsepower vessel called the Wally One; and the largest carbon fiber sloop produced by the company to date: the 164-foot Better Place. That one, Redgrove recalls, was in the process of being painted the same color as the owner’s Bugatti.

Here’s what the Wally One looked like when it was finished. Photo: Wally

Redgrove, who splits time between London and New York City, specializes in these sorts of images, capturing strikingly sterile scenes of jets, cars and boats in production. It’s something a bit different than what we’re used to. Hero shots of yachts gliding through the water are familiar stuff, but rarely do we get to glimpse them hoisted up on terra firma, parked underneath a warehouse ceiling. They don’t even necessarily read as boats here so much as massive sculptures–it’s not entirely surprising that Wally has won the Compasso d’Oro, the prestigious industrial design award, twice in recent years.

Unfortunately, the rebranding effort for which the photographs were taken fell apart, and the company never asked Redgrove back to finish the job. “I’m just sad we never got to see them being launched and shoot them in the water,” he says. Because you can’t truly appreciate the beauty of a $30 million yacht until it’s in its intended habitat, accruing a ludicrous bill for upkeep.